London Part 2

When I woke up the next day, I walked Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park (including the Marble Arch). I then met up with my friend. We went to the British Museum where we checked out a bunch of stuff -- most notably the Rosetta Stone. We then went to London Tower, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and the London Eye (but did not have time to go into the London Tower nor the Eye). And as every first time Londoner, I got fish and chips!

Next time I'd love to go with someone who has been there before and not do all the tourist stuff. Hanging out with the locals at the pubs and seeing the non-tourist parts of the city would be nice.

Marble Arch

Rosetta Stone

Tower Bridge

London Part 1

The weekend of the 28th-29th (my sister's birthday weekend... Happy Birthday!) I went to London. Let's just say that having to catch a train at 5am after a night out on the town might not be the best way to go about things! I woke up after only 1 hour of sleep and realized I missed the first train. I scrambled to brush my teeth and run to the station to catch the next one. In doing so, I forgot to bring my other pair of shoes (that actual has a rubber sole). As a result I walked around London in dress loafers. Not fun.We did the obligatory tourist stuff like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and Parliament Building, Picadilly Circus, and Starbucks. I was a bit hung over and did not eat much or drink much water. It finally caught up to me at about 3pm. I went to the hotel to take a nap. When I woke up I had a splitting headache. I ran to the local pharmacy, grabbed some pain killers and passed out again. This time I woke up at midnight ready to go. Problem was my friend had already turned in for the night and I wasn't familiar with the area or when the Tube stopped so I decided to call it a night and wake up early.

Phone Booth Picture

Big Ben and the Parlimentary Funk

Buckingham Palace - God Save the Queen

Trier, Germany

On the way back from Lux, we stopped at Trier, a town in Germany known for its ancient Roman ruins. The weather was lackluster so we only walked around for an hour or two and then headed back to Stuttgart.

Roman Ruins in Trier

More Ruins in Trier

Steve taking a picture of the "Do Not Cross on Red because Children might be Watching" sign while the light is red and cars are coming

Luxembourg City

So after Paris, I took a weekend journey to the city of Luxembourg (which is in the tiny country of Luxembourg). After looking for things to do on the internet, I stumbled across a party at a bar called 'The Viking" that stating it was a premier Scandinavian bar and it was having the "Party of the Year" with 1 Euro tequila and spicy vodka shots (no... not mixed). Because of that, we arrived Friday night by car. Needless to say we were disappointed when we walked in. The bar was completely filled with smoke and the crowd was in high school. I took no more than 3 steps and turned around. We found a place to have a few drinks but the nightlife in Luxembourg is nothing to write home about (a bit of an ironic statement considering I'm blogging about it).

On Saturday we spent the day exploring the city. It took all of about 2 hours -- total. We walked a bit and took pictures. Then we stopped in an open area and had a beer at a Cafe. I saw the sun for the first time since Zurich so that was kind of nice. We continued walking around for another hour or so and found our way back to the same plaza as before. We then decided to have a drink and eat a little something. 5 beers and 4 hours later, after sitting in the sun, we decided to go back to the hotel and figure out a plan for dinner (which we ate at an Indian restaurant).


On the way back from Lux, we stopped at Trier, a town in Germany known for its ancient Roman ruins. The weather was lackluster so we only walked around for an hour or two and then headed back to Stuttgart.

Luxembourg City

Building in Luxembourg

It's been a while... part 2

The following weekend I went Heidelberg on Friday night to meet up with some SigEps who were visiting France and Germany for their Spring Break class. I don't have pictures of Heidelberg since I only stayed the night and all we did was go out for dinner and a few drinks.

I woke up early the next morning to catch the ICE (German high-speed train) to Paris. There I met my mom, who was taking a Spring Break university class. It was a great weekend and we had lots of fun. On the return, I took the TGV (high-speed French train). It was soooo worth the money to take the train. What would have taken me 5+ hours (plus gas expense) by car, only took about 3.5 hours by train.

View from the hotel

Me in front of the Louvre

Mona Lisa

Venus

It's been a while... part 1

Wow, it's been 4 weeks since I last blogged. I have been busy to say the least. Work is really in full swing. I am finally getting a grasp of the technical aspects of the new Hybrids, soon to be on sale stateside. The only problem is that I have only 2 work weeks left (since I will be taking Easter week off, like the rest of the office).

So where have I been since Zurich? Everywhere. Well almost.
First was Feldberg, Germany where I attempted to snowboard. I would not consider what I did as actual snowboarding, but it was only my first time.

Rafael and Cesar (Brazilians) and me